In 1985, Milford Cushman and his wife, Terri Gregory, built a small house for $36,000 on 8½ acres of land in rural Hyde Park, Vermont. “I had lived in a lot of places, in trailers and camps and shacks,” says Cushman, who today owns a successful architectural and interior design firm, Cushman Design Group, in nearby Stowe, Vermont. “I was ready for a piece of land and a place to call home.” They named the property Raven Beach for the ravens
they occasionally spotted there — they believe the birds bring blessings — and for the land’s origins as an ancient inland sea.

It was a simple house, built mostly by their own hands: 900 square feet, with one bedroom,
one bathroom, a mudroom, and an open kitchen, dining, and living space. It was heated by a wood
stove and constructed with affordable materials that were standard for the day. The property was
a former government-funded tree farm, and its new owners were “militant” about protecting
the towering pines that dominated the site. “In my design process,” says Cushman, “the ground,

the remodeled house
evokes a “contemporary
camp in the woods,”
says Milford Cushman,
who deliberately gave it
a rustic cabin aesthetic.

The siding is Eastern
white pine, shingles are
Eastern white cedar, and
the roof is galvanized
metal.

design philosophy

Consider the “energy and nature of
the site” in designing buildings that
provide refuge (a sense of security)

and prospect (a sense of
opportunity), a concept first
applied to architecture by Frank
Lloyd Wright.

Since 1989, he has led Cushman
Design Group, a full-service
design firm in Stowe, Vermont.